Environmental Contaminants and Terrestrial Vertebrates PDF Download

Author: Peter Heinz Albers
Publisher: Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

View

Book Description
From an October 1998 symposium at the University of Maryland, College Park, 13 papers explore not only the effects of contaminants on wildlife, but also endpoints and study design, and applying research findings to ecological risk assessment at contaminated sites. The topics include contaminants as a cause for perturbations in terrestrial vertebrate populations, the statistical design of wildlife toxicology studies, and estimating population-level effects on wildlife based on individual-level exposures. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Author: Elżbieta Kalisińska
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030001210
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 708

View

Book Description
The population explosion that began in the 1960s has been accompanied by a decrease in the quality of the natural environment, e.g. pollution of the air, water and soil with essential and toxic trace elements. Numerous poisonings of people and animals with highly toxic anthropogenic Hg and Cd in the 20th century prompted the creation of the abiotic environment, mainly in developed countries. However, the system is insufficient for long-term exposure to low concentrations of various substances that are mainly ingested through food and water. This problem could be addressed by the monitoring of sentinels – organisms that accumulate trace elements and as such reflect the rate and degree of environmental pollution. Usually these are long-lived vertebrates – herbivorous, omnivorous and carnivorous birds and mammals, especially game species. This book describes the responses of the sentinels most commonly used in ecotoxicological studies to 17 trace elements.

Author: Matthew E. Hopton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 300

View

Book Description
A major goal of ecological research is to determine causes for patterns of biodiversity. Establishing a connection between environmental variables and patterns of species richness provides a foundation for modeling species-habitat relationships. In general, a more heterogeneous environment provides more ecological opportunities for more species than a less heterogeneous environment. The relationship between environmental heterogeneity and species richness is dependent on the spatial scale at which analyses are conducted and on the taxonomic group studied. Often, researchers use indicator groups or species when assessing biodiversity. However, a single taxonomic group (e.g., mammals) or a cluster of species (e.g., small mammals) may respond to environmental variables differently from groups excluded from the analysis, and may not be a good indicator of overall biodiversity. Furthermore, much of the research has been conducted at small- or large- spatial scales, and relatively few studies have been conducted at meso-scales. This study investigated the role of environmental heterogeneity in determining patterns of biodiversity of different terrestrial vertebrate groups, and examined the consistency of the results across three commonly used spatial meso-scales of analysis. Relationships between environmental heterogeneity and species richness were analyzed using multiple regression. All measured categories of environmental heterogeneity were important predictors to model patterns of species richness, explaining 40% to> 99% of the variation in species richness. However, the relationship between the different types of heterogeneity and patterns of species richness varied with the grouping of species and the spatial scale. In general, at all three meso-scales, the variables selected to represent environmental heterogeneity were not as good at explaining the variation in species richness for reptiles as they were for other taxonomic groups. In addition, mammal species richness was the most dissimilar of all taxonomic groups, both within and between spatial scales. These results suggest that all spatial scales need to be examined thoroughly and must be considered when examining relationships between environmental variables and biodiversity. Furthermore, the use of indicator groups may not provide an adequate description of environmental variables responsible for patterns of species richness, especially for small groups in need of conservation.

Author: Donald W. Sparling
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1420064177
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 946

View

Book Description
Building on the success of its popular predecessor, the second edition of Ecotoxicology of Amphibians and Reptiles presents newly available findings on the species that are important environmental indicators. This new edition covers nearly twice as many topics as the first, including recent developments in the ecotoxicology of amphibians and reptil

Author: George W. Ware
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489972838
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

View

Book Description
Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology publishes authoritative reviews on the occurrence, effects, and fate of pesticide residues and other environmental contaminants. It will keep you informed of the latest significant issues by providing in-depth information in the areas of analytical chemistry, agricultural microbiology, biochemistry, human and veterinary medicine, toxicology, and food technology.

Author: B. Rattner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

View

Book Description
The Contaminant Exposure and Effects-Terrestrial Vertebrates database (CEE-TV) contains contaminant exposure and effects information for terrestrial vertebrates (birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles) that reside in estuarine and coastal habitats along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Coasts including Alaska and Hawaii and in the Great Lakes Region.

Author: M. H. Martin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400973527
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 486

View

Book Description
In the past two decades there has been an increasing public awareness of the hazards that exist from the contamination of the environment by toxic substances. 'Heavy metals' and the terrestrial environment are but one facet of the impact of toxic substances on the natural environment, and the use of biological materials for indicating the occurrence of, and continually monitoring the presence of, these materials is a specific topic which is of considerable interest to a diverse range of individuals, organisations and disciplines. It was our intention when we first en visaged this book that it should contain a description of a range of circumstances in which biological monitoring techniques have been employed in the terrestrial environment and that it should be seen as a practical text which dealt with the merits, shortcomings and suitability of biological monitoring materials. Monitoring is, however, a manifold process. It serves not only to provide information on past and present concentrations of toxic materials in various components of the environ ment, but also to provide information on the processes of environmental release, transport, accumulation and toxicity. Indeed, this may be one of the greatest virtues of biological monitoring over other forms of monitor ing. According to the skill of the staff employed in the monitoring procedure, the information that is accrued can have a vastly different value.

Author: Claude Amiard-Triquet
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9781439817704
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
Tolerance, the ability of populations to cope with the chemical stress resulting from toxic contaminants, has been described in many organisms from bacteria to fungi, from phytoplankton to terrestrial flowering plants, and from invertebrates such as worms to vertebrates like fish and amphibians. The building of tolerance, be it by physiological acclimation or genetic adaptation, can have great consequences for the local biodiversity, and hence the ecology and ecosystem functioning of many of the world’s habitats. Understanding the frequency of the occurrence of tolerance has tremendous implications for the sustainability of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Tolerance to Environmental Contaminants takes a multidisciplinary approach across contaminant types, habitats, organisms, biological levels of organization and scientific disciplines. The book examines the general principles governing the acquisition and biological consequences of tolerance, genetically or physiologically based, at different levels of biological organization, taxonomically from bacteria and archaea to flowering plants and vertebrates, and within organisms from molecular biology and biochemistry through physiology to whole organism, community, and ecosystem levels of organization. Presenting a state-of-the-art synthesis of the many aspects of the phenomenon of tolerance to environmental contaminants, this volume covers mechanisms of defense involved in the acquisition of tolerance, different classes of environmental contaminants, positive and negative ecological consequences of tolerance and the impact of tolerance in bacteria, plants, and insects on society. The reviews presented in this book supply the tools for carrying out more informed and therefore more reliable risk-benefit analyses when assessing the ecotoxicological risks to life in any of the contaminated habitats that now surround us in our industrialized society.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309040469
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 173

View

Book Description
Studying animals in the environment may be a realistic and highly beneficial approach to identifying unknown chemical contaminants before they cause human harm. Animals as Sentinels of Environmental Health Hazards presents an overview of animal-monitoring programs, including detailed case studies of how animal health problemsâ€"such as the effects of DDT on wild bird populationsâ€"have led researchers to the sources of human health hazards. The authors examine the components and characteristics required for an effective animal-monitoring program, and they evaluate numerous existing programs, including in situ research, where an animal is placed in a natural setting for monitoring purposes.

Author: Mikhail Kozlov
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9789400736719
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 466

View

Book Description
The adverse consequences of pollution impact on terrestrial ecosystems have been under careful investigation since the beginning of the twentieth century. Several thousand case studies have documented the biotic effects occurring in contaminated areas. However, after more than a century of research, ecologists are still far from understanding the effects of pollution on biota. Only a few generalisations have been made on the basis of extensive monitoring programs and numerous expe- ments with industrial contaminants. The need to reveal general patterns in the responses of terrestrial biota to ind- trial pollution and to identify the sources of variation in these responses became obvious more than a decade ago. At about that time, our team initiated a quanti- tive research synthesis of the biotic effects caused by industrial pollution, based on 1 a meta-analysis of published data. All meta-analyses conducted so far (covering diversity and abundance of soil microfungi, diversity of vascular plants, diversity and abundance of terrestrial arthropods, and plant growth and reproduction) c- sistently showed high heterogeneity in the responses of terrestrial biota to industrial pollution. At the same time, they demonstrated an unexpected shortage of infor- tion suitable for meta-analyses, as well as a considerable influence of methodology of primary studies on the outcome of the research syntheses. To overcome the identified problems, we designed a comparative study, the results of which are reported in this book.